Everything with Substance has Weight
by Wildjump
Summary: At 21 Toph runs her own earthbending academy and has been restoring order to the world one secret meeting at a time for the last decade; the fact that she hasn't seen Avatar Aang in three years has nothing to do with any of it. What will she do when he decides to walk back into the life that she's built for herself? Throw rocks at him of course... she's Toph Be Fong. (Mature) Taang
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Welcome. Just a little Toph/Aang fic that kept nagging at me. Starts off Toph/OC but evolves quickly. I hope you guys enjoy, and as always, I don't own Avatar or any of its characters. This story is rated M for language and mature situations romantic or otherwise so please be advised.

Left, right, up, down. Over and over and over again. Toph felt as much as heard her students outside her walls repeating the same motions, drilling until they collapsed or gave in. She sipped her tea delicately and frowned hearing yet another student falter and fall silent. Tomorrow was rest day, but every student who fell short of their quota today in drills would be forced to finish it tomorrow. She hated when her rest was disturbed by too many students catching up on their drills at sunrise on rest day. She heard Chen bellow to pick it up and smiled a little into her steaming tea cup.

"Ah and what, or should I say who, bring such a coy smile to my daughter's face?" Iroh asked from across the elegant stone table. They were in the states room where she received important guests and the parents of noble born earthbenders when they brought their children to train at Beifong institute of earth and metalbending.

"Its not like that Pops" Toph said shaking her head and taking another sip of tea. She could feel Chen's strong footsteps as he moved in and amongst her students drilling them endlessly and bellowing at them when they slipped up.

"I do believe I saw master Chen drilling the students this morning, is that correct?" Iroh pressed, "He seems to be thoroughly competent."

Toph snorted, Chen was more than competent and in more ways than one, but Iroh didn't need to know that. "So Pops, how was it getting to play Firelord while Sparky and Sugarqueen were of honeymooning around the world?"

Iroh sighed, "I am too old for all that nonsense, but I am glad they had a good trip. They deserved a break."

"Ya well they never came and saw me." She protested only a little sour.

Iroh laughed, "I said break didn't I child? You would have had them training with your children all day so you could teach them what a real waterbending master is like. Not that the lovely Kikumi isn't more than capable herself. Not to mention a firebender who isn't old enough to be their grandpa."

Toph snorted and punched the older man playfully on the arm careful not to bruise him. Kikumi was a decent water bender although she lacked in both healing and combat when compared to Katara, but not everyone could be Princess Perfect so she figured she'd have to let it slide just this once. Besides, she was half certain that the only reason Iroh stayed at the school so much was to be in her company. Kikumi was younger than Iroh, but not by much with four grown children of her own, and was in charge of the healer's wing at the school. She liked her students to be well prepared when fighting other benders and so having the both Kikumi and Iroh on staff most of the year worked just fine for her.

"Chen is still the only one apart from me that can beat you one on one Pops. You're doing just fine." She assured him smirking a little when she heard Chen bend one of the older kids into next week for messing with a newcomer by making his rocks do different things than they were supposed to.

Iroh looked out the small window down at the training ground and smiled, his attention seemingly re-focused on Chen once more. "I do hope that boy has been treating you the way your dear old father would want." He needled once more.

Toph snorted thinking that the activites she and Chen shared behind closed doors were probably nothing like what a father would desire for his daughter, but glazed over it for the sake of the old man. Toph rolled her sightless eyes and stomped her foot on the ground twisting it 90 degrees to the right and causing a student who had been playing around instead of drilling to fall into what was likely quite a painful split. Chen bellowed once more and Toph felt him smack a rock up against the kid's behind simultaneously raising him out of the splits and likely bruising his tail bone. "You're interrupting the Master's tea." Chen reminded the teen, "Get back to work before she comes out here herself."

Toph felt the teen turn back to his work and even a few terrified students who had collapsed in exhaustion had jumped back up to continue their drills. The teen muttered something about tea that Toph couldn't quite make out, and was about the put the kid back in his splits, but Chen did it for her and this time didn't bother to help the kid up. Toph's smile grew. It was true, she and Chen worked well together, very well, but that was all it ever really was between them. They worked well together in the practice yards, they worked well together teaching the students, and they worked well together in the bedroom, but outside of that there wasn't much else to say.

"He's fine Pops, don't worry about him." Toph assured her father figure.

Iroh let out an mhm that didn't sound very convinced, but she changed the subject before he could continue, "So how did the love birds like visiting all of their love nests? I hear Suki is about to pop with those twins and I'm sure Katara enjoyed being home with her father and the tribe for a bit."

"Oh I think they enjoyed their trip very much." Iroh said with a chortle.

"So how far along is our Fire Lady then?" Toph said raising an eyebrow.

"Oh well enough I should think, but not too far that anyone should be asking any questions." Iroh said laughing at Toph's correct assumption that Katara had returned from her six weeks honeymoon pregnant.

"His advisors should be happy then." Toph said dryly.

"I doubt they know. I only guessed because I know them so well. Zuko is always protective of her, but he scared their paliquin carriers into a puddle going off about how important carrying the Fire Lady was and how so much as a slip in the mud and he would do it himself."

Toph snorted imagining the accelerated heartbeats and stiff muscles of the servants as they imagined the shame of the Fire Lord carrying his own paliquin. "I'm surprised Sugarqueen hasn't drown him yet if he's that bad."

Iroh chuckled, "By the looks of it when I was leaving she might have tried."

Toph laughed and they sat in companionship chatting until Toph heard Chen outside her door. He never knocked. He didn't need to. She knew he was there and she would get to him when she was ready. Iroh caught the tilt of her head as if she were turning her ear towards the door and smiled.

"It would seem your training master is finished drilling your students into the ground. Perhaps I will go see if Kikumi needs help with the injured ones." Iroh said standing and stacking his tea set onto its tray to take with him.

Toph laughed, "It was only drills, what do you think he did to them? Bury them?"

"All the better then." Iroh said with a wink and a bow half of which was lost to Toph, but she knew full well what he meant.

"Hey Pops," She said to his retreating back, "Just don't sprain anything ok?" She teased.

She heard Chen chuckle outside the now open door and let out one of her wolfish grins towards the old man. "We each do our best." Iroh assured her and left.

Chen entered as Iroh left. "That nobleman's brat still giving us trouble?" She asked referring to the snarky teen from earlier.

"I'll handle him tomorrow." Chen said laying the stone tablet with the student's reports on the stone table. Toph smacked her hand down on the table and could see the spires of stone Chen had bent out of the tablet next to the etched name of each student. She liked this method of report taking, Chen had designed it, and it kept her from fumbling around blindly trying to feel things on a piece of paper or bark like her old secretary had used to make for her to read.

She nodded satisfied with the reports, and said, "Nah, I'll deal with him, it always means so much more to them with their Sifu does it herself." She grinned wickedly and Chen smiled back at her.

"I need a favor when you're free." He told her collecting the tablet to give to tomorrow's training master so he knew who to drill and for how long.

"What kind of favor, I could make myself available" She said voice dropping suggestively.

Chen snorted and said, "My armor isn't fitting quite right anymore, I think I put on a little more muscle through the shoulders."

Toph snorted and sat back interest abated, "You're a metalbender now, fix it yourself."

"And pollute a Beifong original with my shoddy skills? Never." He said in a false aghast tone.

Toph snorted. The armor he had bent for himself, was far more intricate than the ceremonial piece she had bent for him when she gave him his masterhood, but it was a ceremonial symbol of his graduation from her school. Upon mastering earthbending Tough bent each student, meaning only Chen so far, a set of ceremonial armor emblazoned with the crest she bestowed that particular student with. Chen's was a chasm between two cliffs with a study stone bridge paving the gap between them. He was the bridge in her life, and she knew that the crest she had given him was more about they way that she saw him than who he really was, but when they had started sleeping together not long after that he had assured her that he could think of no better emblem of himself as a person or an earthbending master. Metalbending was not a requirement to graduate from her earthbending program however, and thus far Chen was her only student to have truly succeeded in the art. He was no master, but she doubted she would ever see anyone as her equal in that field. "Bring it with you tonight. I'll take a look, but I'm telling you now, if I have to add more metal to it again I'm making you wait at least a week." She said with false sternness in her voice.

Chen chuckled and bowed saying, "Sifu Toph, you honor me."

"Oh get out of here, you sound like TwinkleToes." She chastised him.

Chen was still for a second before approaching her and placing a comforting hand on her hair, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…"

"I said get." She said pushing him towards the door by rearranging the stone tiles such that the ones he stood on were now in the doorway. Chen looked back over his shoulder worriedly and her heart sank. He was only trying to look after her she reminded herself and stood from behind the low table and made her way towards him. He waited patiently in the doorway until she raised herself on tip toes and kissed the side of his jaw. "Tonight" she promised, voice softer now and pushed off of him lightly with the hand resting on his chest before making her way towards her office.

It had been years since she had seen Aang. Well not years since she had seen him, he had come to give his blessing at Zuko and Katara's wedding, but years since they had seen each other face to face. When he and Katara had broken off their relationship more than three tears ago, he left to spend his time meditating in the avatar temples in each kingdom in an attempt to find himself and to bring himself back to his culture and his past lives. Sokka and Suki had been married for more than a year and were expecting their first child and Katara had been heading back to the southern water tribe to be with her people and help them re-build in the aftermath of having ended her six year relationship with Aang. Zuko was Fire Lord and recently singe after Mai had acquiesced that Ty Lee was perhaps more her type, but that she had been concealing her interests due to the rigid traditionally of the fire nation before the war. Both girls were grateful to Zuko for creating a world in which they could be themselves, and Zuko was happy to see his friends happy and hadn't taken the fall of his relationship too hard.

Toph was different though. She had her school yes, and she had Iroh by her side, but Aang had been her best friend. He was the only one her age in Team Avatar, and loosing him out of the blue like that had affected her in a way she hadn't expected. Mostly she had been pissed. She hadn't expected to loose her best friend at 18 due to a breakup, but in the last three years she had only seen him once and that from a far. He hadn't ever sought her out or tried to connect with her despite the level of freedom that she maintained to travel and leave the school when ever she wanted. She could since him at the wedding, she heard his voice, too deep and smooth for the boy she had last known, but unmistakably his. The ceremony had been coming to a close and she stood on a terrace beside Iroh, watching as an adopted member of his family, as two of her best friends were married. She had felt him hug each of them and stepped behind Iroh out of his direct line of sight, but she needn't have bothered. He never so much as looked her way.

Every time she thought about him it made her want to kick something. So she did. Frequently… mostly rocks… at Chen. He was always there though and never asked too many questions when they were done. She and Chen worked well together. He was just as solid as she and she knew that they could stand side by side shoulder to shoulder and nothing could ever bring them down. They worked well together, but that's all they would ever be. She and Chen were like two boulders slamming into each other, they would never quite fit together but they made quite the impact when they made contact. It wasn't a good basis for a lasting romantic relationship, but they looked after one another and kept each other sane in a school full of earthbending children. He was older than she, by almost ten years, but neither one of them really cared. In the beginning he had resisted her advances, saying that he was far too old for her and that she should find someone who hadn't already been married even if his wife was taken from him several years before they met by illness.

Toph almost laughed aloud remembering the moment. She had all but pinned him to the wall with steel and taken advantage of him then and there to prove her point, but eventually she had let him go and returned to her room only to have him knock down the door fifteen minutes later. Toph sat at her desk summoning one stone tablet after another with reports from her different secretaries and instructors on everything from transcribed letters from friends to the details on student's progress. It was growing late and her stomach was telling her that she had missed dinner when a strange noise from outside attracted her attention.

A gargled moan of protest from a large beast made her pick her head up from her work. She was concentrating so hard on the noises outside, that she jumped when Chen bent her door open and walked in. "Toph?" He asked concerned crossing the few steps around her desk and kneeling in front of her to get a better look at her face.

"That son of a bitch" she yelled jumping up and completely ignoring the shocked Chen still kneeling by her empty chair as she ran out the office door towards the front of the school. She could feel the currents of air disturbing the still night air and the strong rhythmic footsteps of Chen dashing after her summoning his armor to him as he followed. She couldn't quite pinpoint the epicenter of the disturbance in the air currents as they brushed by her skin, nor had the grounds been disturbed, but she knew that mournful protest and knew that wherever that fuzzy beast went his good for nothing owner followed.

"By the mother." Chen breathed under his breath, "Toph."

"Sht" she snapped. She almost had him. There, circulating air was getting closer and closer to the ground creating waves and patterns of dust as it was swept up off of her beautiful grounds and into the invisible air. "There" she said triumphantly and heard an indignant bellow as she sent a rock spike up directly into the air before Appa's face.

"Hey!" Aang yelled in his friend's defense and Toph chuckled mincingly. She heard Aang leap off of Appa directing him to the stables with Momo and felt the air whoosh up to fill his robes bringing him to a slow and elegant descent.

Toph's grin split even wider. The second Aang's foot touched her precious earth he was sucked down into it until only the top of his blue head was visible. Aang easily bent himself back out, but Toph was far from finished with him. She felt Chen's stance turn to a guard stance indicating he was only there to watch and she thought "good boy Chen" as she charged her once friend with all the pain and ferocity built up over three years of absence.

Aang was clearly on the defensive, but he never made so much as an attempt to fight back, "Stupid fucking pacifist" she swore at him tossing rock after rock in his direction. She had made it all but impossible for him to land and he floated through the air dodging her attacks while simultaneously redirecting them away from her school. Toph snorted, as if Chen would allow anything to happen to the school. He had more than enough experience protecting her precious school from her own temper. He didn't need the mother blessed Avatar and neither did she. "Fight me" she screamed at him, but still he danced through the air dodging her attacks and never once returning them.

She continued to rain hell on him, but even in her anger she noticed that his silence and his lack of pleading with her too calm down was a sign that he had grown in the three years since she had last spoken to her. He was sad, she could tell that much from the few times he had touched down, but not hurt or angry as he might have been as a child. If anything he felt guilty. Well damn right he should feel guilting. Fucking air-headed flake. Toph ground her teeth and dove, tunneling into the ground to come up under him wrapped in a virtual tornado of stone.

It took barley a sweep of his hand to push the rocks aside and she realized that he had gathered water form the air or the nearby stream when she hit a thin wet wall of water before she could reach him. Suddenly there was the crack of electricity and the water became a net of electricity causing her muscles to seize as she began falling out of the air. The arms that caught her were thin, but strong, and the chest they collected her to was firm and well muscled, but definitely lacked Chen's shear bulk. Aang drifted to the ground softly still holding her to him as her body recovered from the literal shock of a few moments before. "Toph?" He said almost as a question, "Can we talk now?"

"Put me down." She demanded absolutely refusing to admit that her voice had broken or that it was more of a weak croak than her usual strong tenor.

"Come on Toph, I came to apologize, just talk to me." He said with a sigh that made hims sound older than she knew he was. Still he placed her carefully on her feet ensuring that she could stand on her own when they landed.

Re-connected with the earth again she felt significantly more stable and her expression hardened. Both men in the clearing saw the set of her jaw and the way she turned up her nose and knew there was no talking with her tonight. "I'm busy." She insisted turning her back on the avatar and heading directly towards Chen instead.

Chen waited for her by the entrance and she grabbed him by the front of his armor bending it a little in her forcefulness as she dragged him behind her towards her quarters. Chen grimaced a little seeing the crestfallen expression on the Avatar's face but followed his Sifu inside without protest. She stomped through the halls of the school as if she wanted the avatar to feel each step from where he stood outside and he was sure that more than one of the older students would be teasing him tomorrow about the force of her temper as they made their way to her bedroom. She let go of him at the entrance of her room and he took that as permission to stick his head in the maid's room and request a room for the avatar.

"Of course master Chen, one by the Sifu's I'm sure."

Chen winced, "Um, no, perhaps a more… peaceful location."

The maid smiled at him knowingly as Toph let out a frustrated growl from her nearby room. The maid bowed to him and he followed his enraged Sifu into her rooms.

Toph's face was pure fury as she slammed the hidden metal walls up behind him. The intent of the metal walls was to protect the Sifu should she be attacked in her sleep, but she had activated them a few times before in some of their less careful rendezvous to prevent damage to her room and from too much noise from what they were doing from getting out. Chen knew what she needed right now as well as she did and lifted her bodily up against the metal wall kissing her fiercely.

It was well after lights out when Toph lifted her head from Chen's muscled chest and said, "Let's fix that armor should we?" Chen chuckled and ran a hand down her bare back, but new better than to argue with his Sifu when she got an idea in her head. "I noticed you grabbed this set instead of yours when you thought we had a fight. It can't fit that poorly."

"It was closer" he explained raising his arms as she bent the armor buckles open and clamped it around his bare torso.

"Just the chest piece?" She asked checking the fit through his shoulders. He nodded and smiled as she stood on the bed to reach the tops of his shoulders.

"I moved it to your rooms after we spoke before lunch so that we could work on it tonight." He explained.

"You grew." She grumped at him.

"I am an adult man, we do not grow. Perhaps I just have more muscle from lifting my Sifu too often." He teased reaching around to pinch her bare hip.

"Are you saying I'm heavy?" She asked wrenching the chest piece a little tighter than necessary.

Chen turned to face her earning himself a disapproving look and placed his hands on her full hips saying, "Sifu Toph, I will never insult you by suggesting you are some dainty flower of a woman. You have real substance and what is it you're always telling your students?"

"Everything with substance has weight." She said concealing a soft smile as she smooth the dent she had put in the front of his armor back down.

Chen nodded, "Besides," he said leaning forward to nibble on the sensitive skin between her breasts as she stretched the metal between his shoulder blades from her vantage point over the top of his head, "substance is far more interesting than some airy twat."

Toph snorted and Chen resisted the urge to wince realizing exactly what he had said "Is that so?" She asked.

"I didn't mean it like that." He said with a sigh.

"I know" She said softly reshaping the the metal to better fit his shoulder-blades.

Chen rolled his shoulders as his armor began to fit as it should once more. "You should,"

"Neit" she shushed him flicking the metal armor with a finger so that it made a resounding dinging sound to drown out his comment.

Chen sighed and picked her up off the foot of the bed placing her back on the floor. "You're armor is getting a little thin in the back. I should add more metal to it, but I don't have any purified right now. Korn is about to undergo his mastery ceremony in a few months. Try not to get it caved in until then and I'll add some back in to thicken it back up." She unbent the clasps and he pulled the armor off of his shoulders hanging it on the open armor rack in her room and leading her back to bed.

Toph was quiet for several minutes as he stroked his broad hand through her long hair and just waited. Chen was good at that. He was patient and knew she would come to him when she was ready. "Who does he think he is?" She grumbled.

Chen laughed, "The most powerful man in the world perhaps?" He asked teasingly earning a disgruntled mumble from the woman sprawled across him. "Are you going to talk to him then?"

Toph hurumphed, "Of course I am, he's the avatar."

"I didn't mean the avatar." Chen said drawing soothing circles on her back.

She was quiet for so long he wasn't sure she would answer, but finally a sleepy voice said, "Ya, I'll talk to TwinkleToes too."

Toph took her time getting up and dressed in the morning and Chen purposefully lounged in her bed longer than he normally would have giving her time to make her own decisions without pressuring her by making an appearance and altering everyone that they were out of bed for their rest day. The rest day was the one day a week that neither Toph nor Chen woke before the sun and everyone knew not to disturb them before at least one of them was seen to have surfaced for the day.

"Hungry?" Chen asked sarcastically as her stomach gurgled at the late hour having skipped dinner the night before.

"Princess airhead is eating in the mess hall right now." Toph said crinkling her nose and glaring in the direction where Chen knew the avatar must me.

"Sifu, catch" Chen said bouncing a thick skinned fruit off the floor in her direction. Toph felt the fruit bounce and easily caught it smiling over her shoulder at him. Pulling one of the metal knives off the wall beside her she began pealing it slipping wedges into her mouth crunching happily. "Rolls are on the window sill. They were too hot to wrap when I filched them from cook."

Toph smiled knowing he must have snuck out in the pre-dawn hours while she was still asleep and snagged some food from the cook for her. "What would I do without you?" She asked sitting next to him in bed and leaning into the crook of his arm as they sat and munched.

He let her munch for a while before saying, "Why don't you go find out Sifu T." Toph froze at the familiar nickname given to her by her first student almost a decade ago and strictly outlawed for the last three years.

With a growl she stood and wrapped the metal studded belt around her silk master's robes and snapped the ankle bands shut with her bending securing her pants around her ankles with bread roll half out of her mouth. She tugged her hair up into its customary bun and pinned it in using a headband to keep her thick bangs out of her sightless eyes to prevent the nagging tickling sensation they caused on her nose and cheek bones. With a final stomp and flick of her foot she launched Chen out of bed causing him to flounder a little in the air before landing landing next to her in surprise. She huffed at him, but stood on her tip toes and kissed his jaw softly before turning and making her way out of her rooms and towards the stables where she knew Aang would return after breakfasting with the students.

Chen smiled after her, but it was a sad smile. He knew when he told her to go that he was likely letting the best part of his life walk out never to come back. Chen smiled ruefully at himself, he had always known that a 30 year old coal worker like him had no future with the likes of Toph Beifong, but it didn't make it any easier to watch her leave.

Toph had forgotten how soft Appa was and how snuggly Momo could be especially then he was sulking over having being left behind by Aang. She snuggled into Appa's side and fed Momo grapes, but kept her two feet firmly planted on the ground. His presence was like an itch that she couldn't reach. There were over a hundred students and staff members at the school, but one set of footsteps seemed to sear themselves in her mind as he flitted around the dining area helping the maids pick up from breakfast and stood before Chen talking about something that made his heart race. "What's he like?" She asked her two companions. Appa huffed sadly and Momo chittered in her ear. "That different hu?" She asked sadly.

"Not so much Sifu T." Aang's voice came from the wooden rafters above her and she wondered how long he had been there. She assumed a quarter of an hour ago that he had taken off on his glider, but she never heard him land above her.

"You sure about that?" She asked and heard him float down beside her sitting against Appa a few feet way from her.

"Not like you Sifu T."

Toph snorted, "I haven't changed that much."

"You can't see yourself." He reminded her.

She let her head fall back against Appa's side and considered his words. She was different than she had been at the end of the war, 9 years would do that to a 12 year old, but since he had left? Maybe. She knew she wasn't built like any of their friends. Katara had kept her willowy beauty which only refined and accentuated over the years, but she was lean graceful. Suki was only an inch or two taller than Toph, but she had a petite frame with wrists like a child's and nimble capable hands. Ty Lee was built like Suki and even Mai had grown into her tall imperious frame. Toph was short and stocky with heavy breasts and hips and a toned narrow waist. Her legs and arms were to dense with muscle to be delicate and her hands and feet, while small, were solid and more used to brute force than delicate maneuvering. Her hair was longer now falling well past the waist when she left it unbound, which she never did in public. Her face was harder for her to judge, but she figured if the rest of her had changed that probably had too, but really it hadn't been that long. Had she really changed that much since she last saw him when they were 18?

"It's been three years." She reminded him unsure whether she meant to impress upon him that she wasn't that different at 21 then she had been then or if she was accusing him of his absence.

Aang sighed, "I know." His voice was quiet and told of the unknown sorrows of a man twice his age.

"Where have you been" She asked voice small.

"Everywhere" he said with a note of sorrow and awe in his voice, "I've been to every major city in every major era. I've seen every conflict, and loss. Every injustice and imbalance in the world."

"Alone?" She asked.

"I'm never truly alone, but yes."

"You couldn't take damn break to come say hi to a few old friends? The western earth temple is only a few miles from here you know. I could feel Appa land and take off."

Aang sighed, "You've gotten better at seeing great distances then."

"So it's my fault then?"

Aang let his head drop into his hands and buried his face between his knees in frustration, "I let so many responsibilities fall to the wayside trying to keep Katara happy in the years after the war. We spent more time on Kyoshi Island and with the southern water tribe than the rest of the world combined. I neglected my avatar training and my own people for too long. Just because I mastered the elements and ended the war didn't mean I wasn't the avatar anymore and I spent years ignoring myself."

"So everyone else around you should suffer to make up for it?" Toph asked flicking stones at the barn wall by flicking her big toe.

She felt the air buffet against the ground as he bent himself up and came down kneeling in front of her. He reached out cupping her cheek with a long warm hand, "Toph, you have to know, that was never my intent."

Turning her cheek from him she punched him in the arm rather harder than she had done to Iroh or even Chen. It knocked him back on his haunches and he watcher her sadly as she said, "I was alone to you know."

It was Aang's turn to snort, "Not for long from what I hear."

"Chen's none of your business" She said sourly, "besides, when has my sex life been so interesting to you anyway."

He considered this for a few moments surprising her by not lashing back in embarrassment. "Since I saw you at Zuko and Katara's wedding I suppose."

Toph sputtered turning back to face him, "You saw me?" Her voice was at least an octave higher than it should have been, but she honestly barely noticed.

Aang smiled, "How could I have not? You were so beautiful standing there by Uncle Iroh like royalty yourself. Not fire nation, or earth, or water, you were the only one there that had your own identity. You were there alone so I guess I kinda assumed…" He laughed at himself wryly, "Well you know what happens when you start making assumptions. I guess I earned that one hu?"

"What were you thinking insisting to that maid that she put you in a room on my wing?" Toph asked voice half tinted with humor.

Aang winced and blushed a little, "You knew I was there?"

"I always know where you are when you're nearby. TwinkleToes remember?"

"You could have spared me a little." Aang accused her.

It was Toph's turn to blush, she had been so pissed after their non-fight last night and had taken out on Chen, or rather Chen and dragged every bit of fight out of her until they were both so exhausted they fell asleep completely spent. "You made your bed." She said sourly and Aang couldn't think of a reasonable comeback.

He sighed, "I'm happy for you T."

"Don't lie TwinkleToes."

She felt Aang shake his head and he said, "I mean it Sifu T, if you're happy then I'm happy for you."

"But you don't think I'm happy with Chen." She observed measuring his dishonesty in the first statement with the absolute truth of his second.

"He seems great Toph. He showed me around some this morning. He really seems to help you keep everything together here."

"You forgot to mention he's too old for me."

"I guess I didn't forget that you don't need anyone else to make decisions like that for you T. You never have."

Toph couldn't help but smile a little. He was right. She didn't need people to tell her Chen was too old for her. He was too old for her and frankly she didn't give a fuck.

"What did Pops say about him?" She asked knowing that the old man wouldn't have been able to help himself.

Aang considered how to respond, but seemingly decided on the truth because his heart rang true when he said, "He said that Chen was the rock to your stone; one and the same."

She snorted, "I take it you're not young enough for his wisdom to go over your head anymore are you?"

"No Sifu." Aang said almost sadly.

"He's right. Chen and I work great together, but we will never fit just right like Sokka and Suki or Katara and Zuko. We're too much alike. It's like throwing rocks at a mountain. At the end of the day, it's all just a big heap of stone."

Aang was silent as she finished processing what she had said, "So you decided to be with him anyways?"

Toph stood, "What two adults do behind closed doors is no one else's business, and unless my sex life is so revolutionary that I am disrupting the balance of the wold Avatar, it is certainly none of yours. Now if we are finished talking about how much better my sex life is than yours, I have students who should be finishing up with their extra drills right about now and one of them is about to be taught a lesson by his Sifu." With that she strolled out of the barn and towards the practice field where the students who failed to finish their drills yesterday were seating in the mid-morning heat.


	2. Chapter 2

Lygin Lou Cho was the second son of a noble earth kingdom family and as such felt he deserved respect from these groveling, dirt covered peasants. He was about to find out that he was very, very wrong.

Toph approached the earth kingdom training master who was in charge of remedial drills and saw Lygin sitting looking lazy and board having finished most of his drills the day before. The drill master shouted for attention and the students all stood and bowed to her as she came to stand up beside him. He was well enough she supposed for an earth kingdom master, but no student of hers would ever be allowed to be called a master with such a weak stance. Turning her eyes to the teen Toph sized him up and called a set of practice armor to herself from the nearby shed. Padded armor in hand she walked up the Lygin and said, "Lord Lou Cho, of Amerlin estates of the eastern earth kingdom, I challenge you to a battle of stone." She dropped the padded armor into the petrified teen's hands and turned her back on him heading for the dirt arena that stood as both training grounds and trial grounds for bending battles at her institution.

She entered through the defendant's arch of the arena as was her right as master of this place into the staging area where Chen was already waiting for her. Aang was beside him shifting nervously on the balls of his feet. "Relax TwinkleToes, he's hardly even a novice, he won't even touch me."

"It's not you the Avatar is worried about." Chen chuckled holding out the heavy dress armor she had finished for important ceremonial events only a few weeks ago.

"Come on Chen, teaching this this kid a lesson hardly qualifies as a ceremonial battle" She complained ignoring the armor he presented to her.

Chen raised a brow at her and said, "You've grown too Sifu," giving her breast a not so subtle nudge as he set the armor to her shoulders. Toph could practically feel the heat coming off of Aang's cheeks a few paces away as Chen said, "This will fit you better, and you're less likely to come spilling out of it and really give that poor kid a heart attack."  
Toph snorted and glared at Chen, but she let him settle the breastplate and position the other pieces around her strategically so that it was easy for her to pick them up with her bending and snap them in to place as they moved like liquid against her skin forming and fitting into every curve of her body perfectly. She could feel Aang's eyes on her and she had been told how impressive the process looked to an outsider before, but feeling the spike in Aang's heart rate and blood pressure was still strange for her. Nothing used to surprise him about her.

"I'll tell the smithy in town to prepare some more simple steel for your play armor tomorrow and we'll re-work it." Chen promised handing her the decorative flying boar helm.

Toph snorted at the heavy helm and removed the metal band that wrapped around the top of the helm slipping it over her headband. The fluid metal settled in a mimicry of the cloth band around her head with a triangle shaped tiara supporting the front of her bun while metal strips wove themselves over her scalp binding her hair into it's bun form no matter how much her fighting dislodged it. Until she removed the circlet, her hair would remain in its bun, the only issue with it was once she did remove it, her hair inevitably came undone so she usually ended up having to ware the damn thing for half of the day just to find the privacy she required to re-do her hair.

Chen smiled and placed the helm back on it's rack, "Try not to send this one home crying to his rich noble daddy, eh Sifu? It took you three years to convince his poor mother to send him."

"He was terrorizing the whole damn village with his shoddy bending and lack of discipline." Toph complained.

"And he'll go right back to it if his dear old mummy and daddy come down and rescue him from the monstrous Sifu." Chen chuckled and knocked his knuckles against her pauldron playful.

"I'll do my best." Toph said unconvincingly.

"Maybe we could have the Avatar mediate the battle for us." Chen suggested.

"Nope. We never needed the Avatar to settle things at the school before and we don't need him now."

"I simply meant since he's here…" Chen reasoned.

"You've never been simple before Chen, don't start now. Come mediate the match." She said brokering no more argument and almost successfully ignoring the pinch of pain that came from the sinking feeling she could feel growing in the young man behind them.

Toph walked out onto the field to find the stands half filled with students and staff members from the school. They all cheered when she came out followed dutifully by Chen. Clearly the boy was ill-liked by his peers who often chose to cheer for the underdog just for the fun of it.

Lygin came out of the opposite side of the ring looking too small in his ill-fitting armor. Toph really had tried to guess the best size for him, but she also knew that one of the assistants would have outfitted him with better fitting practice armor had it been available. Chen took his place blasting a column of rock up overlooking the arena and said, "As defendant do you require a reading of the rules for the battle of stone?"

"As writer of the rules for the battle of stone and Master Sifu of this institution, I do not require a reading of the rules." Toph answered in her smuggest tone.

Chen continued the ceremonial start of the tournament by saying, "As challenger do you require a reading of the rules for the battle of stone?"

"Umm yes? Wait um no… maybe?" Lygin stammered his heart hammering like a hunted jackrabbit. Chen waited patiently until the boy stood straight and said, "No."

"Does anyone among the official attendants of this challenge require a reading of the rules for the battle of stone?" He continued.

"I as the Avatar and an official spectator of this challenge request a reading of the rules for the battle of stone." Aang said now standing in the front of the stands looking down on the field worriedly.

"What?! Oh you have got to be kidding me!" Toph yelled stomping her foot and settling the myriad of stones that had been rising off the ground with her anticipation for the start of the brawl.

"A request has been made for the reading of the rules for the battle of stone. As mediator of this battle I find the request of the Avatar to be a valid one. The reading of the rules for the battle of stone will commence."

"Seriously?! This is ridiculous. Quit waisting my time." Toph yelled from more than a hundred feet below them.

"The rules for the battle of stones is as follows:" Chen began only to be cut off by Toph's bellow.

"That's it! You're next TwinkleToes! I challenge you next." The entire crowd gasped and tittered amounts themselves.

Chen paused and said, "The rules prohibit the defending party from challenging a spectator while in the ring."

"Oh really is that so Mr. Know-it-all? Then I challenge you Rockhead" She screamed back at him in frustration. This time the whole stadium went silent watching with bated breath as mom and dad sparred verbally with one another across the arena.

Chen sighed and buried his head in his hands, "You can't challenge me either Sifu…"

"Well who the hell can I challenge?"

"No one. You're the defender."

"Well who made these stupid ass rules?"

Chen sighed again, "You did Sifu."

That stopped Toph's rant as she remembered that the reason she was really here had nothing to do with either man who currently held her frustrated attentions and she sat forcefully on the dirt bending a rock tent above herself as she had as a frustrated child and allowing Chen to continue with the rules.

"Oh Sifu T, you never change do you?" Aang said under his breath smiling.

Chen sorted and softly answered back, "Sprits I hope not." The two men shared a conspiratorial smile before Chen continued.

"The rules for the battle of stones is as follows: Each earthbender will have three seconds to create a platform six feet tall, not to take up more than their half of the arena. An opponent must knock the opposing bender off of his or her platform to win the round. A maximum of six rounds will be held until one opponent is unable to battle or concedes. At the end of six rounds if both benders wish to continue the battle, the mediator will determine if a winner can be decided by knockouts in previous rounds or if a seventh round will be allowed. The seventh round has no limit is can only be decided by forfeit or the inability of one or both combatants to continue fighting."

Aang winced, "How often does it go to seven rounds?" He asked Chen quietly.

"Against Sifu Toph? I have a scar for every last one." Chen said solemnly. Aang winced but nodded his head in respect at the older man. He could see why Toph liked him, they similar in so many ways, but Chen was respectful and stoic where she was brash and high spirited. Aang formally bowed his thanks.

"Now that the rules for the battle of stones have been read the battle will begin on my mark." Chen announced. Preparing himself, Chen bent a fist sized stone against a great metal bell that hung over the defendant's side of the ring causing it to ring out with a deep melancholy resonance.

The moment the bell rang Toph's stone tent split apart and dissolved back into the ground just as the stone rippled out from her feet in great waves until her entire half of the arena was six feet higher than it had begun. Settling into smooth stone long before the second tone of the bell rang out signaling the true beginning of the battle. Lygin had been raising sections of earth a few feet wide around him to the six foot height one piece at a time and ended with a rather small island in the middle of his half of the ring. The sheer inequality on the field was rather pitiful when the second toll of the bell came and it came as a surprise to no one when the second toll had yet to ring itself out before the young man was sent sprawling off the back of his platform into the dirt six feet below.

The bell rang a third time and Chen flattened the arena with a lazy stomp of his foot as the attendants came out onto the field to check on the young noble. An earth kingdom master in his gold and jade robes came out onto the field and gestured at Lygin as if he was trying to instruct the young man on a better approach before the beginning of the next round.

Something seemed to swim uncomfortably in Aang's stomach as he watched the proceedings. They reminded him of the Agni Kai performed in the fire nation. He shifted uncomfortably and Chen whispered quietly, "Non-master earthbenders may each choose a master to guide them during the event. Not that it will help, but this is meant to be a learning experience for them, not a real battle. When we take our master tests with Sifu Toph we have to go all seven rounds. There are no masters to guide us then."

Aang looked up at the older man where he stood on his pedestal of stone, "Do you have to win?"

Chen shook his head, but any trace of the amused smile he usually wore when talking about Toph was completely gone, "We have to survive. This whole place was built on top of a metal mine. She only teaches metal bending to her masters. I am the only metalbending student at the institution and even so, I doubt there will ever be another metalbending master so long as Sifu Toph lives. I barely escaped with my life during my earthbending mastery tournament and both times we have fought a battle of stones since. There isn't a soul on this earth that could best her in a metalbending only tournament. Not even you Avatar."

"She uses metalbending against you before she teaches it to you?" Aang asked looking down at his once innocent friend with worry across his brow.

Chen nodded, "She says it is the only way we will ever truly learn. I bent metal for the first time during my master's trial. It's like the way Fire Lord Zuko talks about learning to channel lighting or Fire Lady Master Katara learned to bloodbend. I am the first and thus far only of her masters, but Korn will face his master tournament in nine weeks. Some of the younger hopefuls are taking bets on whether he will metalbend, but I already know. Korn will metalbend during his tournament. He will metalbend or he will die."

Something hardened in the pit of Aang's stomach and his curiosity over the match turned to ill concealed worry over the distinct hardening he was seeing in this toughest and closest friend. Having found the Avatar in a vulnerable position Chen reminded him coldly, "She's not the little girl in the white dress anymore; she's not even the girl from Earth Rumble Six. She's the woman you made her into by dragging a twelve year old girl into a war she could never win. She killed those parts of herself a long time ago. She ripped them out of her soul and left them to die on a battlefield for you and you left her to figure out how to live without them alone."

Aang's fingers crushed the metal under them with the strength of his anger. It was mostly directed at himself, but a part of him knew that Chen wasn't being completely fair either, "I was twelve too." He reminded him.

"And that Avatar, is the only reason you are welcome on these grounds." Chen said redirecting his attention to the field below him on which the challenging corner was finally starting to clear out of masters and attendants.

"How long have you loved her?" Aang asked not looking at Chen, but knowing he could hear him anyway.

"Long enough to know it was never me that she needed." Chen responded not looking at the young man next to him.

Lygin lasted four founds before forfeiting the match. Chen nodded stepping down from his spire and turning to Aang with a smile. "If he makes it through the night, he'll do well here," he said with a nod of satisfaction clapping Aang on the back jovially.

Chen suddenly laughed at Aang's horrified and shocked expression, "Not like that, she barley bruised him. Some of these young noble twats decide it's too much work or they don't take kindly to being tossed around the ring by a woman and take off back home in the middle of the night after a battle of the stones with Sifu. If he chooses to stay, he'll keep his attitude in check and work harder for the next time he faces her and she'll start training him twice a week one-on-one. It happens this way with most of the older noble boys we get. The girls have usually fought so hard to get to our front door that they wouldn't risk their position here for anything and the younger ones grow up smarter than all that, but these older boys always come to a crossroads with the Sifu. If she chose to challenge him instead of letting me or one of the earth kingdom masters it means she think's he's ready for some real training."

Aang nodded in agreement a little impressed with Chen's insight into Toph's mind. Once they made it down to the defender's staging area Chen went to help his master with her armor, but Aang was stuck frozen in the doorway in shock. She had released the headpiece from her hair and was busily shaking several feet of thick black hair our of the headpiece to fall, still half curled from its bun, below her hips. Chen accepted the headpiece from her as she bent backwards in her armor gathering her hair between her hands and soothing it down by combing it with her fingers.

"It's just hair TwinkleToes, I mean I know you don't have any, but the rest of us don't shave it off every few days so it tends to grow." She teased him form between the hairpins clamped between her lips.

Chen scrabbled a little at the side of her bust trying to unlatch her armor before huffing and drawing apart its internal clamping mechanism with his bending. "You're gunna take an arrow or an axe between these plates one of these days and there isn't going to be a metalbender around to get this contraption off of you so the healers can get to it." He chastised her noting the lack of external clasps in her new armor.

"Aww but Chen, it looks so pretty without all the stupid clasps." She teased and he rolled his eyes at her.

"You're blind Toph, you don't care what anything looks like and I personally prefer you alive." He said literally bending the pants off of her and revealing her silk master's robes still un-crimped underneath.

"I suppose I'll just have to keep one of you big strong metalbenders around then won't I?" She said obstinately, shedding her pauldrons, grieves, bracers, and gloves in one abrupt movement and letting them clatter to the ground as she went back to fixing her hair.

"You're going to be the death of me woman." Chen groaned bending down and beginning to collect her armor.

"And that's a promise." She said with something that in another woman might have been described as a giggle.

Aang bent to help Chen collect her armor and the older man nodded his thanks directing the avatar to the armor stand which already held her chest plate and armored pants.

"Damn it" Toph swore as the hair pin she was about to use dropped out of her hand.

Aang bent and picked it up for her as she struggled with the hair that had escaped her grasp while she was fumbling with the pin.

"Thanks TwinkleToes." She said taking the proffered hairpin back as Chen stepped up and took control of her hair just as readily as he had handled her armor. His large hands neatly swept her hair away from her face and began shaping it into her customary bun as she let him take control of it for her.

It seemed like such a casual act that it almost bled of the intimacy between the pair and Aang began felling like he was intruding on something he shouldn't be seeing. For some reason this simple act was making him far more uncomfortable than anything he had heard the previous night and he turned to leave before Toph said, "Hold up Aang, it's lunch time, let's see if Iroh is free and we can catch up in the states room."

She was pulling her bangs back with her headband when he turned back to look at her. Chen stood once more beside her armor rack checking everything over. She turned to him placing a hand against the older man's cheek in silent thanks. Chen took her hand in both of his, but instead of looking down at her he locked eyes with the Avatar over her head and whispered "go" against the tips of her fingers guiding her towards Aang with a soft hand on the small of her back. Aang gulped at the intensity in the older man's eyes, but held out an arm to Toph nodding his thanks to Chen and confirming that he understood the meaning behind Chen's actions. Toph, party to only a small portion of the exchange and ignorant to its significance, ignored the proffered arm punching the younger man in the shoulder jokingly instead.

"See TwinkleToes, I didn't even leave a scratch on the kid." She insisted bumping into him jokingly. Aang smiled down at her and laughed at her antics as they made their way back to the school's main building.

Lunch and tea with Iroh lasted much of the afternoon and it wan't until the maid came to call them to dinner that the trio were brought back to reality from their trip down memory lane and their task of filling Aang in on what he missed during his absence. "Perhaps the young avatar should come to our meeting tonight." Iroh suggested packing up his tea set.

"Nah we got it Pops." Toph said turning away from Aang so he couldn't see the expression on her face.

"Meeting?" Aang inquired.

"It's nothing TwinkleToes." Toph assured him picking herself up and heading for the mess hall.

Dinner was a rowdy affair as always as every student, master and staff member apart form the kitchen staff gathered in the booming stone room and ate the day's fill. A raised dais held Toph and any visiting masters as well as her own masters. At the moment Aang sat between Iroh and Toph while Chen sat at her right hand. Below them in another pair of split tables also raised a few feet of the ground sat the resident masters and below them the room was filled with students and staff mingling and joking through their dinners. Toph smiled looking out over the room and noting that Kygin was still almost his piers although a little worse for ware. She nodded in his direction to Chen and the older man smiled and grunted his recognition.

As dinner wound down after plenty of good food and friendly conversation, Toph stood. The hall was filled with a clattering as everyone in lower daises stood facing her and a hush fell as they bowed. Toph merely nodded her acceptance of their show of respect and with a single forceful heave bent a hole in the floor through which she plummeted sealing it behind her as if she had never graced the hall.


	3. Chapter 3

Iroh chuckled at the shocked look on Aang's face and the bemused annoyance on Chen's and said, "She does like making an exit doesn't she?" Before standing and offering the Avatar a hand to help him from his seat on the floor. "We will take a somewhat more circuitous route if you don't mind? My old stomach is to happy and full from this wonderful dinner to be dropping through floors." Aang rose with Iroh and Chen followed suit wisely keeping his mouth shut about where they were going and his personal opinion on the Avatar's presence there.

Iroh lead them down into a series of tunnels that Aang could since running throughout the catacombs of the school and its yards. The stone soon meted into carefully constructed metal rooms and hallways as Iroh lead them farther and farther down. They met the waterbending master Kikumi a few floors down and she and Iroh linked arms as they continued through a maze of passages.

Finally the came to a steel door with no handles, or knobs, but only hinges along once side and a indented circle carved in the middle. "Shall I?" Chen asked, but Iroh shook his head and blew a thin stream of fire at the door until the circle was filled and began to low red. Suddenly there was a click and the door separated into two panels which must have had water pockets stored in them as Kikumi bent apart with ease.

"They're always too hot to handle for a few minutes after he does that." Kikumi explained to Aang wringing her nose. "Any one can enter if they know how. Any bender can open the doors and there are panels on the walls that receive other forms of access as well for our non-bending members."

"Members?" Aang asked still unsure of what lay for them in the room beyond.

Iroh only smiled and lead Kikumi forward into the room. "Brilliant exit as always my dear." Iroh commented to Toph who was already in the room leaning against the head of a large table. There were others in the room as well and it was obvious that Toph was the youngest of their number. She and Chen stuck out in a room full of older men and women, but Aang's confusion cleared when he noted the symbol of the white lotus inlayed into the center of the table. Chen separated from their group and took up post behind her; a silent second to her presence int the room.

"News from the fire nation" an elder man dressed as a fire sage said taking attention of the room, "The Fire Lady seems to have publicly reminded the people that their heir might as easily be a waterbender as a firebender. They are demanding a trial of fire for any heirs born of their union."

Toph shook her head, "I bet our dear Fire Lord wants to kill his wife right about now, but the child isn't even born yet and most of the nation probably doesn't even know she's actually pregnant. Let's deal with it when the kid is actually old enough. If it's a firebender we may not even have to worry about it."

Iroh shifted uncomfortably on his feet and she turned to him raising an eyebrow, "The trial of fire as it concerns an heir to the fire throne is not a battle like the Agni Kia fought between two known firebenders. It was an ancient tradition meant to ensure that only a strong firebender could be born heir to the fire throne. An ancient and wretched tradition, it requires the testing of an infant still within its mother's body at its sixth month of development. If the child is a firebender, he or she can survive the trial otherwise it is… scorched out." Iroh finished shifting from side to side and clearing his throat.

"Dear spirits. You people burn a woman and her unborn infant from the inside to ensure it is a firebender at six months just because what some water tribe healing woman once told a Fire Lord that bending presents within six months of development? Some children take over a decade to first bend!" Toph all but exploded shaking her head in disgust.

Iroh's shifting became even more uncomfortable as he said, "I believe the appropriate date was found more by trial and error than a healer's advice…"

"Fantastic" Toph said pinching the bridge of her nose. "Either way we all know Zuko won't let that happen, so apart from civil war, what are our options?"

"If the child is a waterbender he could denounce it." The sage suggested and Toph rolled her sightless eyes.

"Perhaps denouncing the child is too strong of a word, but if he simply made other arrangements for the child outside of being heir to the throne, the child could still live a happy life with his or her family and a later child who is a firebender could take the throne." Kikumi suggested.

"We could make arrangements between the waterbending child and one of the northern water tribe nobles of appropriate age." Master Pakku suggested, "We would be happy to marry fire nation royalty into our bloodlines especially one of Fire Lady Master Katara's waterbending children."

"Ya, Fire Lady Master Katara is just going to leap for joy at the idea of her child being second rate because he or she is a waterbender not a firebender." Toph said sarcastically and Aang silently agreed, "Master Pakku, General Iroh, you will both report to the fire nation within the month. Stay close to Katara and Zuko, convince Zuko not to make any public announcements concerning whether this child will be their heir to the throne or not. So long as he has blood heirs and there is a reasonable assumption that they will keep making them he doesn't have to make any public decisions about who will take the throne after him. Iroh, you help convince the people that fire blood is stronger than water blood or some nonsense like that. Convince them this child will be a firebender and that for them to say otherwise is to doubt their own element and nation. It will be years before anyone actually knows if this kid can even bend anything so let's just keep the masses in check for now and keep them from over stepping themselves. Master Pakku, you will be there as a master healer to watch over Katara during her pregnancy, but also as an official delegation from the norther water tribe. Spread the word that you are interested in this child if it is a waterbender. Say that clearly if it's a waterbender it can't be heir to the fire throne, but that the northern water tribe has been looking for a way to strengthen its ties to the outside world and a waterbending fire throne prince or princess, even one that isn't qualified for the line of succession, would fulfill your master's interests. As long as we keep the masses thinking that the heir to the fire throne will be a fire bender and that a successor will be chosen if and only when a firebending child is born to the royal couple, Katara and Zuko can name whomever they want as successor to the fire throne and by the public gets wind of it, it'll be too late. I don't care if they put a waterbending princesses first in line for the throne, but the less the people know about it, and the more talk there is that the child will be married off unless it is a firebender, the better."

"Wise as always general." Iroh said and bowed quickly followed by a solemn Pakku.

Aang looked around the room as if expecting someone to stand up and tell Toph she didn't give the orders around this table of elders, but apparently she did, because the fire sage who had brought the issue to her attention was now bowing as well and saying, "We will see it done general."

Then her attention was on him, she lifted her face to his chin high and nose up as if daring him to question her decision, but he was silent and she nodded accepting his retreat.

"What's next?" She asked the room at large and an aged earth kingdom man, an accountant at the palace by the look of him stepped forward.

"General, if I may," Toph placed her hand flat down on the table, fingers splayed, feeling it's vibrations and he placed his likewise before him. Connection made and permission given, he began, "We've more trouble with he anti-bending movement. First it was the illegal bending rings, then it was the factories powered by bending, but now they're taking over schools and snatching children from their beds."

Toph's jaw was hard, "Explain."  
"They've been stopping by the bending schools in the fire nation and earth kingdom. Even the northern water tribe has reported strange non-benders interfering in their schools of healing and warfare. They start by talking to the parents, trying to convince them to send their kids to their schools instead, but with the new laws in place, all of the bending children have access to bending schools paid for by the state so the parents are turning them away. Then they started going after the kids, the younger ones mostly, tricking them into coming with them or just dragging them out kicking and screaming. They pretend to be relatives or friends of the family and the guards at the schools assume the kids are just misbehaving because they're all under ten years of age. Then they stopped."

"When? How long have they been targeting the schools?" Toph asked voice like slate, cold and hard.

"We weren't sure at first, maybe three months now. I have only just been able to make the trip here myself. We were unsure about sending a messenger." The financier responded looking nervous.

"And my messengers weren't good enough for you? I send my men and women by twice a month, good men and women, benders and non-benders one of each in pairs. They travel the world the fifty of them. I pay them, I keep them, and I send them to the capitol at least twice a month. It is your job, as a member of this organization, and as a member of the royal court to report to them anything like this that is endangering the lives of our people, especially our children." Aang could hear the granite in her voice and something in the way she spat each word made him want to shrink back into the wall. It wasn't having a much different effect on the man before him as he wrung his chubby hands and pulled at his gold rings.

"We only wanted to be sure. We had to look into it, but we didn't have the people or the time. I'm a banker, my job is very important and when…"

What ever other excuses he was about to make were cut off by both of Toph's fists slamming down onto the table and causing the whole stone face to ripple with her fury. Under his soft leather soles, Aang felt the floor spike like someone tapping on the bottom of his foot, but it never quite connected. Looking up at Toph he saw Chen watching her attentively, she swiped her finger from right to left as if sliding it across the man's middle before nodding. Chen nodded silently and took his leave of the room by way of creating a metal door into a side hallway that Aang had not noticed earlier.

"I have the men Master Financier. I have the time. I have a very important job and that job is to keep the people of this world safe. I do that by training and deploying highly skilled teams of individuals to every edge of the world to report back to me, but they are only fifty strong. They can only be in 25 places at once. It is up to people like you, like the royal courts in the fire nation, earth kingdom, and water tribes, to collect goings on and pass them on to my organization so that we may ensure the safety of the people of every nation. Why have you failed in this duty?"

"We weren't sure they could be… well you know, two women traveling around alone like that, it simply isn't… we wanted to be sure that you got the right information… we felt that…"

"Who is we? Who else knew children were being taken and didn't think to tell anyone about it?"

"Well it's not as if we didn't inform the proper authorities."

"Bullshit, because do you know who the authorities inform when something is going on that involves more than one nation?" Toph demanded.

Aang wanted to speak up, he wanted to step forward, he wanted to be able to stand up and say 'me, they come to me. They come to the Avatar,' but he had been gone. For three years he had been gone and now, now they came to her.

"Well I'm sure someone told…"

"Me." Toph said voice pure stone and ice, "They come to me. It's my job to fix the world when it's broken. So I will ask you one more time, and I will know if you lie to me so tell me truthfully, why did you not report this sooner?"

"There was… well you see, they way things work in the Earth Kingdom, the real Earth Kingdom, I mean, not an isolated little island like you have here, is that when…" the financier's blubbering was interrupted by Chen's re-entry into the room carrying three bags full and clinking with coins in one large fist.

Toph shut the man's mouth with a stone manacle drawn from the table before him and said to Chen, "Report".

"He had three bags of coins in his room, two earth kingdom and one fire nation. He was collecting money from the families to get their children back from them. He needed time to collect their money so that he was already payed when you got their children released and returned to them. He has ledgers as well," The burley earthbender said pulling several smallish notebooks out of a back pocket, "Cities where the kids were taken from, the kids' ages, how much money the parents still owe him once they get their kids back. It's all here and General?" Toph raised an eyebrow, "Their new gambit is testing kids for bending. They're claiming they can tell as early as two. The anti-benders are banding together into groups like traveling circuses. Making their way from town to town and parents are paying them to have their kids tested. The next morning, the circus is gone and all of the kids predicted to bend with them. His ledgers have over 100 families that payed for him to get them back, but how much do you want to bet there are plenty more that couldn't afford to?"

Metal manacles ripped themselves out of the wall and shackled the financier where he stood beside the table. "Master Aranon," Toph said addressing another elderly man dressed in earth kingdom master's robes, "I believe the earth king is missing one of his subjects. I will write his letterhead myself, but if you would be so kind as to take charge of him from here."

"I will take him," Aang said stepping forward and offering out a hand.

"You have no power here Avarar. I suggest you sit back down." Toph said ignoring him and Iroh placed a warning hand on his shoulder before he could step forward again.

Master Aranon took the prisoner from Top with a bow and exited the room. "Chen, I expect all of the necessary documentation on my desk by tomorrow noon along with anything he had of import and all of the money he collected. You and Kikumi are in charge while I am gone. Keep my children safe."

"Yes General." Kikumi and Chen chorused.

"Avatar, you're with me, the rest of you, follow the orders you've been given and if you have a problem, figure it out on your own or bring it to Master Pakku and General Iroh in the fire nation. Meetings will be held there until further notice. Dismissed." The room bowed as Toph strode past taking the front of Aang's tunic in her fist as she passed.

"Where are we going?" Aang asked as he followed her up twisting passageways.

"Hello, missing kids, corrupt government officials, anti-bending groups, weren't you listening to anything back there?"

Aang took hold of her hand on the front of his shirt and tugged swinging her around to face him. Toph was struck for a moment, honestly floored that he had just turned the tables on her like that. No one but Chen had manhandled her in… ever, and even so, when he did it she was absolutely expecting it. Up until a few moments ago Toph would have said that Aang didn't have that kind of strength or determination in him, but the reality of how much he had grown in the last three years was finally starting to sink in as his grip on her wrist went from bruising to merely firm. "I noticed that you're the only reason the world hasn't fallen apart without me." He said softly standing over her in the darkness of the tunnel.

"Oh don't fatter yourself TwinkleToes you were in ice for a hundred years and the world went on without you. It's only been three."

"That's not what I meant." He said taking her chin with his other hand and tilting her face up so he could see it in the faint light cast by the rare glowing stones that lit the passage at odd intervals. "These types of issues, the ones that span across the nations, these are supposed to be my responsibilities not yours."

"Ya well, someone had to do them." Toph said pulling her chin out of his grasp and turning her face aside. "Sokka and Suki were off having a family and Sweetness and Sparky were trying to figure out how to fall in love without killing each other and you were spirits knows where so someone had to do it. I was just the only one without anything better to do."

"That's not true, you could have left it to Iroh and Pakku and Bumi, but you didn't you took over. Why?"

She shrugged again, "Like I said, I guess I just didn't have anything better to do. Besides, I have fifty pairs of eyes, they only have three. It just made since in the end. None of them could be everywhere at once, I could…"

"About that," Aang began only to be cut off by her exasperated sigh.

"Come on TwinkleToes, we can talk about all of that from the air, I have a stop to make to one of my teams tonight and I require our dear Appa's assistance."

"Sifu T, are you asking to fly?" Aang teased with a laugh.

"Oh shut up." She said punching his arm and leading them back up the path that was taking them to the stables where Appa was happily napping.

"Where to?" Aang asked from Appa's head as Toph, already looking green clung to the side of the saddle.

"South east of Ba Sing Se. Theres a small village there. My girls live there. There will be a house outside of the village with an over sized stables, you can land Appa there." Toph instructed. Momo curled up in her lap and soon they were off.

When they got well into the air Aang came and joined her. She had her eyes squeezed shut tight and her breathing was steady, but forced. Aang took one of her hands in comfort and partly to distract her and partly because he was really curious asked, "So fifty pairs of eyes?"  
Toph chuckled weekly and said, "I got the idea from something Sparky said about a month after you left. He and Sweetness were at the school at the same time and he said it felt like being under the eye of Usogau. I wasn't familiar with the story since it's a fire nation myth, but Usogau is"

"The bear with 100 eyes." Aang said with a smile in his voice.

"Right, he watched over the sun and the first flame when they were infants. It was said that it took 100 eyes to keep those two in check and so Usogau became their guardian. I kinda figured that was what the world needed right about then. Especially after you left, it felt like the whole world was just a flame playing in a field of daisies, it needed a guardian, so I built the army of 100 eyes. Men and women split into pairs, one bender and one non-bender in each. Some of them have territories, some of them are assigned to people or missions, but they all report back to me in one way or another. From there, I send the messages where they need to go, I deal with it as the lotus, or I put a team on it to watch it. They never get involved unless they have to, they're just there to watch and report."

"So you built an army of spies, with which you now run the White Lotus society?" He asked and she could feel his heart rate spiking a little through his palm.

"I guess kinda. Got a problem with that?"

Aang smiled, "So many, but because it's you Sifu T, I suppose I'll allow it."

"Well good because you didn't really get a say in it after you left." The chuckle died in Aang's throat and he squeezed her hand tighter in his.

"I shouldn't have left. I'm sorry Toph. I thought I was fulfilling my responsibilities as the avatar by traveling to the temples and learning from my past lives, like the avatar used to, but maybe that wasn't the right choice."

Toph was silent for a long time leaning back against the saddle like she was looking up at the stars and Aang studied her surprised, but happy that she was still allowing him to hold her hand. "I was mad at you at first. Actually I was so pissed I didn't ever want be around you again, but then that first time you came to the western earth temple and I could feel you there and I almost left to go see you. I wanted to bust down the doors and demand to know what the hell you thought you were doing, who you thought you were to just walk out on us like that. How we could go through so much together and then years later just… nothing… and all because of a breakup. I wanted to slam you into the ground until you woke up and realized what you were doing… but I didn't. I had my students, and the school… I had my life and you had yours and I realized that… it didn't matter what you did with your life, because no matter what you did, I would always have the life that I made for myself with or without you.

That place, my school, it's a fortress. If the whole world fell, I could defend it single handedly if I had to. I don't need the world to be at balance or at peace. I want it to be, but my life doesn't depend on it. For a while that was enough for me, but then I realized, just look at who my friends are, the head of the Kyoshi warriors and the future chief of the southern water tribe, the fire lord and lady, and the ever blessed avatar… If the world burned and everything went to hell I'd be fine, but I'd be alone, and if there was one thing you leaving thought me it's that I don't want to be alone.

The Avatar used to be able to take years for training because there were people out in the world making sure that it carried on without the avatar. People who cared about the balance of the world and who were willing to fight to keep it. I didn't start the hundred eyes or take over the white lotus because I wanted to Aang. I did it because you needed me to so that you could go and do the things that you needed to do for your self."

Aang's response was quiet and subdued, "I know. I think that's why it's so hard for me to see you doing all of this. It's not your job, it's mine." Aang sighed and leaned back against the saddle beside her so that their shoulders touched and their clasped hands fit in the gap between their hips. "And Toph?"

"Hm?" She asked almost sleepily.

"The biggest thing I realized in my time away, was that I don't want to be alone either."

The entire trip from Toph's school to the village outside Ba Sing Se took less than an hour flying with Appa and soon they were landing in the field outside of the oversized barn. Appa groaned and plopped down well away from the warm shelter at which Toph only laughed and said, "I don't blame you buddy, Im not her biggest fan either." Before leaving the animals in peace.

Approaching the front door Toph banged on it loudly with her fist and yelled, "Hey, it's me, open up."

There was a long pause and the sound of a woman swearing like a sailor on the other side of the door before it was wrenched open by a pale looking June wearing a wrap around scarlet robe and a pair of house slippers. "Arie, put on some tea it's the salve driver." She yelled over her shoulder before saying reproachfully, "it's late, come back tomorrow." and making to close the door on them.

Toph held out a fist blocking the door and pusher her way into the taller woman's personal space, "Drop the sass sister, we wouldn't be here if it wasn't important." June sighed dramatically and stood back out of the doorway allowing them inside.

The other woman, Arie, was in the kitchen bending water into a tea kettle. Her skin was dark and her black hair and light blue eyes spoke easily of the northern water tribe, but a scar across her left eye rendered it blind and a chunk missing out of her right cheek make her look sallow and older than her forty years should allow.

"You're not Toph's play thing, where's the big rock man?" June asked the hooded Aang.

"At home." Toph said ignoring Aang for the moment, "I thought you weren't having any issues with the nobles here. You said they trusted you as a part of the king's little menagerie of oddities from other nations."

June blew a long strand of dark hair back from her eyes and said, "Yes, yes, we're good puppets don't worry mother dearest, all the nobles love us. Especially when they think they can get us in bed together. They're a little disappointed after that falls through a few times, but these dolts just keep coming back for more."

"She's joking of course," Arie cut in, "I advise the king on official matters every other day as a part of the inter-nation coalition that he has going and June acts as my bodyguard."

"I am very good at guarding her body" June said suggestively leaning back in a chair to run a finger down Aire's side, "Have you ever been with a waterbender boy? no? Oh they're fun. It's a pity they're such a rare breed."

Toph couldn't help it, she could feel the heat from Aang's face from three feet away and busted out laughing. "Oh he hasn't just been with a waterbender," She said tugging back the avatar's hood and making June's chair fall to all fours with a clunk of surprise, "he's been with The waterbender."

"Avatar Aang, you grace us." Arie said clearly unmoved by her partner's antics. "The coalition is going rather well actually. Even though I was outcast from the northern water tribe nearly two decades ago for my… personal interests, Master Pakku has since been by to smooth the way more than once and my experience from my travels has made me an easy mediator between peoples of many regions."

"My my Avatar, you have grown up haven't you." June said standing and plucking at Aang's loose robes squeezing a bicep here or peaking in a neckline there. "You know, I've never been with an airbender. You think waterbenders are a rare breed, you should try getting your hands on an airbender, they are postively…"

"Enough" Toph said holding up a hand to halt June's inspection.

June sighed and reclaimed her seat, "Very well, yes everything is going splendidly. Arie sits and talks with the diplomats I drink and chat with their guards, bop a few on the heads when they try to catch a feel. Same old same old. Why?"

Toph rolled her sightless eyes, "Because there was just a major breach in your district. A financier who was recently brought into the fold for the white lotus has been taking payments from families with missing children to bring them back. The children are being taken by an anti-bending organization and he somehow caught wind of it when you two didn't."

June and Arie looked at each other for a minute a full conversation seeming to pass between their glance before Arie said, "It's here," and went to a stack of papers on the sill selecting one and bringing it to Aang, "We only heard about the missing children a few at a time. At first we didn't feel that they were connected. This is Ba Sing Se, children go missing all the time. They usually show up in one of the upper rings hiding out in a friend's house or disguised as a servant of a better house, but when they hit the schools, we knew it was different. We were going to put a stop to it, but none of the children in the schools actually went missing so we thought their plan fell through." She explained.

"Then a father came to me last week." June continued, "He's one of the delegate's guards and his little boy, only three, was tested for bending and disappeared the next day. They nailed a copper to his door with a brass nail."

"A brass nail? That's worth more in weight than the copper." Toph said confused and June nodded.

It was Arie who said, "We know. It sounds like a message. Maybe something about the worth of the person being more than the worth of the bending, but we didn't know it was an anti-bending group so we weren't sure. We've been out before the bread makers ever morning the last week checking to see which doors have coppers with brass nails through them. Aang has the list. We've found five."

"Only five?" Aang asked looking over the list of names.

"Is that not enough?" June snorted.

"The financier had over a hundred names of parents who had already paid him to get their kids back, fire nation and earth kingdom both." Toph explained.

"Not from around here then. Ba Sing Se has been quiet. This is a big city, but rumors spread like wild fire here. If that many kids were going missing someone would do something about it. They must be pulling from smaller villages and towns to try to keep the suspicion down." Arie reasoned.

"Are you bringing him back?" June asked.

"The financier?" Toph asked and June tapped her foot once for yes, "He'll be back by tomorrow evening if he doesn't give master Shun too much fuss."

"I'll be sure to look in on him." June assured her.

"Don't." Toph ordered, "Be on the lookout for this group and ask around about more kids maybe ones from outside the city. I'm taking this case."

"Your self?" Arie and June asked together in surprise.

"And why not?" Toph challenged.

"She's not alone." Aang reminded them and the two women silenced themselves.

Arie was the first to speak, "We simply meant that this is the first time that Master Beifong has taken a mission of her own. She usually heads the operation from her island and rarely ever leaves it."

Aang was watching Toph now, but she shrugged it off and said, "Times change" before thanking Arie for the tea they never touched, gathering the rest of the missives meant to be sent to her, and bidding the pair goodnight.

The ride home was quiet and the pair bid one another goodnight outside Aang's room. When Toph entered her room she already knew she would find no company there, but collapsed into her bed none the less alone once more.


End file.
